Cool Quotes

"There is nothing more powerful than a made up mind."
(Lewis Pugh before he dove into the freezing water at the North Pole.  Here is the video I heard him say it in that prompted me to make this post: Lewis Pugh )

I gave up religion because I didn't believe in them vs. us, only to find myself still torn between them and us.  It's just different.  (Me 9/2/2010).

"There is a realization that what has worked in the past may not necessarily work in the future."
(Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, discussing the need to change the affirmative action system of his country in order to stay competitive in the global economy.)  Malaysia's New Journey - TIME

"Unfortunately you can't legislate morality." Rev. Gary Barnes of Cordova, Alaska, discussing compensation following the Exxon Valdez spill with Gulf Coast residents.  Bound by oil - CNN

"It's apparent to me that a lot of people seem to want to prove why a technology is not possible, rather than think of ingenious ways to make something possible. It's my conviction that when someone says something is 'impossible,' what they really mean is 'our current level of science cannot explain this, and I don’t have the motivation to explore beyond its boundaries.'" Richard Obousy (Warp Drives & Tractor Beams)

"Without security you have no privacy."
Howard Scmidt, White House cybercoordinator  (US studying Australian Internet security program)

Enough shovels of earth -- a mountain.
Enough pails of water -- a river.
Chinese Proverb

"God is the name people give to the reason we are here.  But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship.  An impersonal God."  (Stephen Hawking, TIME MAGAZINE Interview, 11/15/2010)

"It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments."  (John F. Kennedy)

"Presidents work within the political consensus they inherit.  They get to Mount Rushmore by shattering that consensus and replacing it with one of their own..."
(Richard Norton Smith, "Hoping for Audacity," TIME Magazine, 11/15/2010)


The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of a single hour.
Japanese Proverb

"'That individuals of genuine worth and immense potentialities who dedicate their lives to the advancement of their fellowmen, are permitted to pass unrecognized and unrewarded from the scene, while others, inferior to them in ability and altruism, receive acclaim, wealth, and distinction, is common — yet it never ceases to shock all but the confirmed cynic. Those with a sense of right and wrong, of fitness and incongruity — whether they be wise men or fools — will forever feel that this ought not to be.'"  (Hubert Henry Harrison:  The Black Socrates)

"Political opposition is okay, but it has to be constructive."  Richard Boucher, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, to President Karzai regarding what he planned to tell another Afghan politician.  (WikiLeaks -BOUCHER AND KARZAI, SPANTA ON JIRGAS, DRUGS, ECO-COOPERATION, GOVERNANCE, IRAN)

"No one is indispensable."
Carlos Castresana, upon resigning as the , the head of the UN International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala.  (Source:  Guatemala Times)

"Enough playing around, enough corruption, look at the gap between poverty and wealth."

The words on a protester's banner, demanding a change of government in YEMEN.
(Source:  Thousands march in Yemen to demand change of government)

"A record 43.6 million people in the U.S. - more than one of every eight - received food stamps in November, as the jobless rate stayed near a 27 year high, the USDA reported.  In most parts of the developing world, there is no comparable safety net..."
(Source:  Bloomberg Businessweek - Feb 21-Feb 27, 2011, by Eric Pooley & Philip Revzin)
 ___
The End of New Deal Liberalism  (The Nation, by William Greider, January 24, 2011)

The above cited article has several quotes that echo my sentiments exactly:

• "American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism."
• "Despite partisan rhetoric, the two parties are more alike than they acknowledge."
• "Ordinary Americans will again be made to pay, one way or another, for the damage others did to society."
• "The business of America is business.  Government should act as steward and servant, not master.  This deferential attitude is reflected in all of Obama's major legislation, not to mention the people he brought into government."